


Thin Ice

by bisky



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, figure skater/hockey player au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 17:06:50
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2819729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bisky/pseuds/bisky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hockey players aren't suppose to fall for figure skaters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Thin Ice

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic for kingdom hearts and it will most likely be multi chap considering not much happens in this first part. A few things 1) I'm sorry if I get anything wrong about figure skating/ice hockey I'm trying my best to keep everything accurate but there's a lot I don't know about them (mostly hockey.) 2) I know in the real world they probably wouldn't share a rink since the rinks for both sports are different but for the purpose of this story we're going to suspend a little disbelief here. Thank you for reading!

Sora loved the cold. Always had actually. From the wind tunnel feeling of the overhead fan on high in summer to winds that curled around the corner of his house and howled in the winter, he loved it all. Walking in the snow in your socks on the first snow of winter, biting in a popsicle and letting it slide down your throat, he even took cold showers. 

He could still remember the christmas morning when he got his first pair of skates. Immediately after finding them tucked the tinsel and pine needles he ran out, in only his pajamas, to the pond next to their house. By the time everyone else had woken up, the pond was thoroughly laced with blade tracks and he had coaxed about four other boys to play hockey with makeshift sticks and rock pucks. Hockey had come naturally to him since that day. At age 10 he was enrolled in junior league, by 13 he was a starter and by 16 he had spent more time in the penalty box than any other player in his region. 

Tweet!

Okay that last one wasn’t an achievement but Sora liked it.

“That’s practice! Hit the showers, then take down the goals. I don’t want those ice skaters complaining about us anymore, got it?” Sora skidded to a halt, feeling the flakes of ice build up under his blades. Teammates around him did the same, and breathing heavily, nodded enough to let the coach know they heard him.

Sora’s face burned hot, despite the ice, as he skated across the rink. He was a little irritated that they had ended so early, he had enough energy to play at least an hour and a half more. Lately though they had to end practice early for the new skating group that had the ice after them.

“Fucking ice skaters man,” A voice said, coming up behind him. He didn’t need to turn to know who it was. Roxas skated up next to him and suddenly Sora felt a hard slap on his back. “waltzing in here like they own the place because they wear skirts.” As he spoke he took the mouthguard off his teeth and a thin strand of saliva spread between his lips and the mouthpiece. Sora grunted in response to the extent that his mouthguard would let him. 

“Speak of the devil, here they come.” Roxas lowered his voice, his eyes locked onto the entrance past the rows of seats. Sora’s head swiveled to look at the group of bodies. They were beautiful in their own right. Long hair tied up in tight buns and creamy white skates slung over their shoulders. They looked like supermodels, Sora thought. Their coach entered a few steps behind the rest. Sora had seen him a couple of times. Tall and thin, the bright red of his hair in deep contrast to the all black he was dressed in. 

He looked at the group to see if he could find his neighbor Kairi among them but he must have spent too long staring because before long he heard the calls of Roxas and his teammates from the edge of the rink. “You can stare at the hot girls later!”, “Yeah come on Sora.”, “We’re all waiting!”. His head snapped back to them and he yanked his mouthguard out another strand of saliva forming just like on Roxas’. 

“I’m coming, I’m coming, jesus christ!” Sora yelled, skating furiously off the rink. Trudging into the locker room, Sora was assaulted by the familiar sensations. He loved the locker room, the locker room was home for him, and as he let the shower water lace through his hair he thought about nothing in particular. 

Being the last to shower had it’s perks, Sora thought as he changed into his street clothes in relative silence. 

“Hey!” As he was about to close the locker he had been using, a loud voice reverberated off the metal of the lockers and a hand extended to slam the locker shut for him. Spinning around he was met with the blonde hair and blues eyes that always seemed to follow him. 

“Roxas, you fricking scared me! Stop doing that!” 

“Sorry bro, just wanted to tell you that I’m going home with Hayner, so you can do whatever freaky things you and Kairi do when you’re alone.” Sora lifted his heavy bag full of equipment over his shoulder and sighed deeply. He had forgotten he told Kairi he would take her home from skating practice today and was not actually looking forward to sitting through it. Also he didn’t like Kairi! 

“I don’t like Kairi.” He blurted out but Roxas was already halfway out the door. Waving at him without even turning his head. 

“Sure, whatever.” 

Sora stood in the locker room for a few minutes clenching and unclenching his fists. It really did bother him that people thought he liked Kairi as more than a friend. They had been neighbors since birth and friends since they were small. They had shared baths for christ sake. And no one seemed to believe him when he said he only saw her as the little girl who cried when her mom left her and wouldn’t eat peanut butter until age twelve. Mindlessly he hiked the duffle bag higher on his shoulder and ended up being smacked in the face with paddle of his hockey stick. 

Great. 

Walking out into arena, Sora tucked his face into the collar of his fleece pullover hoping to avoid drawing any attention to the red mark across his cheek. As he settled into a seat up at the top risers the coach, after pulling his hair into a low ponytail, raised his voice. 

“Okay! Warm up’s over I want to see the individual routines you should have been working on now. Riku! You’re up.” All the skaters who had huddled into a group in the middle of the rink dispersed, leaving a boy with long purple hair and skates that blended into his skin tone standing by himself. At this point Sora would usually become disinterested and start fiddling on his phone or something of that nature but for some strange reason he couldn’t help but stare at the skater. He liked to think he was an observant person but he hadn’t ever noticed this particular guy before. He was tall, with long legs and a slender waist. Strands of his lavender hair had fallen out of the sleek ponytail it was pulled into and he tucked them behind his ear nonchalantly. Music began playing from an boombox by where the coach was standing and the boy launched immediately into what Sora guessed was his routine. 

From the second he began Sora couldn’t help but become lost in his movements. It was fluid, graceful and frankly beautiful. Everything hockey wasn’t. He launched into a jump that turned into a spin midair which made Sora visibly flinch trying to imagine doing that on his own skates. The boy landed no problem and immediately went into a ballet-esque spin. Saying Sora was captivated was an understatement to be honest. He could have watched the boy trace lines in the ice for the rest of his life if it was up to him. A part of him thought that might have been a little weird if he said it outloud but it was overpowered quickly. 

Watching the boy skate was like nothing Sora could explain. Of course he had seen figure skaters before but there was something...different about watching him. He made it look so simple and clean, like he was all alone in the world. Just him and the ice. A feeling swirled inside Sora’s stomach and he felt words he didn’t know on the tip of his tongue. 

He was so engrossed as the boy continued to flip and jump and spin that he didn’t realize the girl who had settled down next to him. 

“Whatcha doin?” She bumped shoulders with him as she said this and Sora was back in the real world, the world where gravity existed and it was weird for him to be watching someone he didn’t know so intently. 

“Kairi!” He shouted. The four girls sitting below them quieted their whispering to look at him like he was crazy. 

“Sora!” Kairi said just a touch softer. Sora looked around sheepishly and the girls went back to their hushed conversation. 

“Don’t sneak up on me like that, Kairi.” 

“I called your name like four times!” She said before pulling out a water bottle and taking several large gulps. He blushed and shifted uncomfortably. “So, you seem pretty interested in the new guy.” Kairi said, her voice sweet and teasing. 

“What? No! No, no. I was just...” Sora trailed off, his cheeks burning like firewood. 

“Sora, it’s okay. I felt the same way when I first saw him skate.” She elbowed him playfully and leaned forward, placing her elbows on knobby knees. Kairi had always been thin and spindly. Sometimes it seemed like her legs went on for miles before it reached her feet which were now clad in scuffed white skates. 

The routine had ended by now and the boy was by the coach who was giving him corrections. At least that’s what Sora figured. He turned to Kairi who was staring intently at her nails. Although before he could say anything she began to speak. 

“His name’s Riku, moved here a few weeks ago just to train with Coach Axel. Rumor is he’s aiming for the Olympics.” 

“The Olympics?” Sora whispered unintentionally. Kairi looked up at him and smiled broadly. 

“You know, the big gathering of every country on earth to duke it for athletic supremacy.”

“I know what the Olympics are I just...that just surprised me I guess.” 

The boy who had now been identified by Kairi as Riku walked off the ice and made his way to a riser far away from the others. Sora watched him sit and bury his face in his hands. 

“What? Don’t think he’s good enough?” 

“No! No, it’s not that.” Any other person would be caught off guard by something like that but it was typical Kairi behavior. Sora was used to it. 

“Well he sure doesn’t think he is. He’s really hard on himself, at least that’s what I think. He doesn’t really talk to us.” 

“Kairi! Your up.” She stretched out her hand and took one last look her nails before turning to Sora. 

“That’s me!” She leaned in and planted a kiss on Sora’s cheek before practically skipping down the stairs, leaving Sora to stew in his own memories of the strange boy’s skating. 

* * *

The next day Sora stayed late to watch skating practice. 

And the day after that. 

And for the rest of the week. 

* * * 

The sun hung low in the sky even though it was only 4:00. Sora checked behind himself quickly to make sure no one was around. In true rebel spirit he had skipped last period to drive to the ice rink. It was friday afternoon and he had a game that night. 

When Sora had decided to skip physics class he had told himself he would go home and sleep. That’s what he wanted to do. So why was he sitting in this parking lot feeling mildly anxious for no reason at all. 

It had been a week since the last time he had watched Riku skate and he hated to admit it but he felt like he was going through withdrawls. Was that even possible? He hadn’t spoken one word to this guy but he felt like he knew him intimately. Watching him skate after a long day at school + practice...it just, it made Sora feel more relaxed than anything else in the world. 

He realized that it was weird, okay? He really did. And for the first few days he worried about it. Now though he had given up on stressing about what it said about his psyche and just enjoyed it. Whatever “it” was. 

Sora really didn’t even know if Riku was going to be there today. Shouldn’t he have school? Did he do anything besides skate? 

After a while of sitting in the parking lot he decided it was safe to go in. The front was probably locked but he knew how to go in through the door in the back. There were only a few other cars in the parking lot in addition to his family’s mazda van. Sora recognized another as the figure skating coach’s (Kairi had called him Axel right?) which meant good things for his chances of seeing Riku. 

Sneaking in through the backdoor wasn’t helping his case for this whole situation not being weird but as the melting snow crunched under his feet in the shade of the building he shrugged off the feeling. Sora made his way through the concrete hallway and into the main arena where, to his relief, Riku and Axel had already begun training. Settling into the very back of the risers underneath an overhang that cast a shadow over the upper half of his body, Sora felt the stresses of the week immediately slip away into puddles beside his feet. 

Axel said something to Riku and then walked off the rink, climbing the stairs right next to Sora. He pulled out his cell phone and answered a call. Sora could hear the person on the other end of the line as Axel began to argue with them in a hushed voice. 

“Yes, he has a competition that day. I told you to get his schedule memorized...” Sora sunk deep into his seat and covered part of his face with his hand. Axel kind of scared him if he was being honest. He had watched their practice enough to know that although he made jokes with the skaters and all, he was hard to please and was sure to not look kindly on a stranger sneaking into watch his private lesson. 

Thankfully he walked right by and out to the lobby without even a glance in Sora’s direction. And for the first time he realized that yes Axel did have tear shaped tattoos underneath both of his eyes. Sora shivered instinctively at the thought of getting a face tattoo and turned back to the rink only to realize that the boy who should have been gliding across the ice or doing a somersault or something, was staring right at him. 

“What are you doing here?” The boy shouted in Sora’s direction with his hand cocked on his hip.  
Shit.

Sora looked around frantically thinking possibly Riku wasn’t speaking to him, maybe his long time figure skating rival had entered the arena and they were about to have some kind of skate-off. Sora cursed to himself for even thinking something that stupid, turned slowly in Riku’s direction and said quite possibly the stupidest thing he could have.

“Me?” 

He couldn’t actually tell since he was so far away but he was sure he could practically hear the sound of Riku raising an eyebrow. 

“Yes you, you are the only one in here right now.” As he said this he skated effortlessly to the edge of the ice. Sora blushed instinctively and racked his brain for an answer. Strangely, ‘I skipped class so I could come down here and watch you skate like a friggin’ creep’ wasn’t really what he wanted Riku’s first impression of him to be. 

“I...I didn’t think you would notice.” 

Riku laughed. 

“I knew you had been watching me during group practice but I never thought you would actually come to one of my privates.” He smiled again and picked up his blade guards off the concrete and slipped them on before walking off the rink. Nonchalantly he leaned against the railing and gestured for Sora to come down to where he was. Sora hesitated but eventually ended up nodding slightly and grabbed his bag to descended the stairs. 

It was awkward, this entire situation was awkward. Sora was no where near prepared to explain his strange behavior much less even talk to the source of it. When he got to the bottom step he dropped his backpack with a thud and slipped into the aisle seat. It was his first time seeing Riku up close, he realized. He was wearing a headband today that kept the messy strands of purple hair out of his almond shaped eyes. He had thin lips and the apple of his cheeks and the tip of his round nose were rosy from the cold. 

Riku looked him up and down before speaking.

“You’re on the hockey team right?” 

“Y-yeah.” 

“You know if I had a nickle for everytime a hockey player called me a fag...” He trailed off and began to chew on his lower lip. For a brief moment he stared intently at his feet. 

“I’m not like that.” Sora blurted out. He had known hockey players who acted that way before, even some of his current teammates could fall into that category. A tinge of guilt sparked in his stomach when he realized that Riku probably didn’t know any better but he just smiled and uncrossed his arms. 

“I didn’t think so, even though it is a little weird that you watch me practice every day.” 

Sora blushed again. 

“You got me.” 

“Shouldn’t you be at school?” The question surprised Sora and he looked up at Riku. He really did look like the perfect figure skater. Tall, lean but not skinny, with piercing blueish green eyes. Even his hands were graceful as they fiddled with the hem of his turtleneck. 

“I could say the same to you.” Sora said, grinning. Riku cocked an eyebrow let his hands fall to his side. 

“I’m homeschooled, genius.” While this made sense it still kind of surprised Sora. “You don’t get to the Olympics going to school seven hours a day.” Riku added. 

“So you really are serious about going to the Olympics?” Riku looked surprised when he said this so Sora scrambled to add: “Kairi told me.” 

Riku squinted his eyes for a minute in deep thought and then looked back at Sora. 

“She’s the red head right?” Sora nodded. 

Abruptly there was a loud noise from the back of arena and a voice shouted “RIKU! If that lutz isn’t perfect by the time I come back you’ll be doing sit spins for thirty minutes straight!” Riku’s eyes widened as he looked from the door to Sora and back to the door. 

“Axel will literally kill me, and you too frankly, if he finds you here. You gotta leave, dude.” Frantically he tore the blade guards off his skates and made his way back onto the ice. Sora was about to call after him to wait, for what he didn’t know, but Riku looked back at him before he could speak. 

“You have a game tonight, right?” His eyes darted to the door and back before he continued. “Good luck.” A smiled flashed across his face before he spun around and skated away. The sound of his blades scraping against the ice ringing in Sora’s ears all the way home.


End file.
